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Genes and society: what influences the choice of friends more?
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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"Nature teaches even the beasts to know their friends." These words of William Shakespeare have become an aphorism. However, for people, nature is not a decisive factor in building friendly relations. This is the conclusion reached by scientists from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
In a first-of-its-kind study, a team of scientists has found that while birds of a feather flock together, genetic similarities between people are part of the reason for this, the social environment in which people interact with each other is also crucial.
Scientists have long argued about which factor has a greater influence on human social behavior - nature or nurture. Sociology professor Jason Boardman is sure that this debate is pointless. "Any social and demographic actions that we are interested in, whether it is having children, getting married, migrating or taking care of health, are never dependent solely on nature or nurture. Both nature and nurture always influence these actions," the professor explains.
Last year, a scientific paper was published that provided evidence that certain genes may influence a person's choice of friends. The journal that published the paper coined a term for the phenomenon: "genetic friends."
To test the validity of these findings and to expand our understanding of the processes that influence friendships between people, Boardman and his colleagues examined the characteristics of 1,503 pairs of friends from more than forty American schools.
Boardman's team found that some of the friends did indeed share certain genetic traits. But the researchers didn't stop there. They made a logical conclusion: If genetics were the main factor in how people chose their friends, then the schools with the most socially homogeneous groups of children should have the strongest genetic influence on friendship. "But we found the opposite," Boardman says.
It turned out that in a socially homogeneous environment there were fewer examples of "genetic friendship" than in a complex social environment with different social strata. "In unequal social environments we found the most examples of "genetic friendship," explains Boardman.
Scientists have yet to figure out what this pattern is connected with, but it is already possible to conclude that the social foundations of society are at least as important a factor in choosing friends as genetic characteristics.
"You can't say that genes determine friendship without taking into account the context in which friendships may or may not form," Professor Boardman said.
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